I wanted a simple recipe for sugar cookies as they can be enjoyed that way or used to make more fancy cookies. I found a recipe on the Internet for lemon sugar cookies that looked pretty good so I made a batch. They were okay but as is typical I am now showing a recipe below that includes improvements I made to the original recipe.

Note that you can use other flavorings instead of lemon to get whatever cookie flavor you want. For example, you could use almond extract instead of any lemon ingredient and add 1/2 cup of almond slices to the recipe. You could also make thumbprint cookies with strawberry jam or other kinds of fruit jams. You could even use a cup or more of small or crushed pieces of Heath® bars or Skor® bars to make a crunchy, chocolate delight.

I included the optional use of Demarara sugar, which has large crystals, and it is a nice addition to a plain sugar cookie. You can find it and buy it easily using the Internet.

This recipe makes about three dozen large cookies.

Ingredients:

3 cups of flour

1 3/4 cups of granulated sugar

2 sticks of butter, softened

2 tsp. of vanilla extract

3 tablespoons (or more) of fresh lemon juice (one large lemon)

1 tbsp. of pure lemon extract

2 teaspoons of grated lemon zest

1/2 teaspoon of baking powder

1 tsp. of baking soda

1/2 teaspoon of salt

2 extra large or jumbo size eggs

Demerara sugar (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Process the lemon to get the juice and the zest.

Whisk together the baking powder, baking soda, salt and flour in a medium sized bowl.

Mix the butter and sugar on medium speed using a large bowl and an electric mixer.

Add the eggs, lemon zest, lemon extract, lemon juice and vanilla and mix until light and fluffy.

Add all of the flour mixture one cup at a time to the mixing bowl, operating the mixer on low speed.

Increase the mixing speed to medium and mix for no more than 30 seconds.

Use two soup spoons to extract dough from the mixing bowl for each cookie. Make a mound of dough that would be about 1 1/4" in diameter in size if it was in the shape of a ball. Space 12 of the mounds evenly on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Flatten the dough mounds to 1/2" thickness with the base of a water glass. First, grease the base of the glass with a film of soft butter, then place the base into some flour, then use the floured glass to flatten a dough mound. Repeat placing the base of the glass into the flour as often as necessary to avoid having cookie dough stick to base.

Sprinkle the tops of the flattened dough pieces with large crystal Demerara sugar if you have it. Otherwise, sprinkle the tops with regular granulated sugar.

Baking time will vary based on what you want, chewy or crisp. Bake for 12 minutes for chewy and up to 14 minutes for crisp. I like to turn the cookie sheet around halfway through baking a batch to assure even baking of all cookies.

Bake the cookies, then remove the cookie sheet from the oven. Let the cookies cool for two minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack using a spatula.

Repeat the above dough use and baking for the remaining two batches.

Store the cooled cookies in an airtight container, or even in one gallon Ziploc® freezer bags, sealed, to keep them fresh.

Enjoy!